DSO launches effort to activate secluded courtyard behind The Max

Aligns with effort in Detroit's anchor cultural district a mile up Woodward Avenue

$1 million in grants supporting planning, public engagement

Summerlong series of events in the courtyard kicks off July 10

Doug Coombe

Crowds gathered for programming at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Sosnick Courtyard during a Concert of Colors event in 2018.

While a dozen cultural institutions move forward with a plan to activate the outdoor space in Detroit's 83-acre anchor cultural district a mile up Woodward Avenue, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is doing the same for a courtyard in its backyard.

The orchestra has secured over $1 million in grants for summer programs and planning efforts aimed at creating a more permanent stage in the secluded courtyard, which is tucked behind the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center on Parsons Street between Woodward and Cass avenues.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation "have shown interest in seeing us take advantage of this green space we own," said DSO President and CEO Anne Parsons.

The DSO has invited people to bring lawn chairs to events hosted episodically in the courtyard, like a concert during the annual Concert of Colors music festival or digital MaxCasts of live orchestra performances on the south wall of the Max M. Fisher Music Center. But it doesn't get used all the time, Parsons said.

"We're going to go through a reimaging process for that space," she said.

The effort aligns with the work of the cultural district to activate public spaces for the benefit of the community, she said.

Laura Trudeau, principal of Trudeau Consulting and retired managing director of the Kresge Foundation's Detroit program, is chairing a stakeholders committee which began meeting in late June. The goal is to develop a request for proposals for a consultant to get public feedback on what people would like to see in that space, whether it's public music, a lunch spot or something else.

The committee includes Midtown Detroit Executive Director Sue Mosey, who has taken the reins of the cultural district plan; representatives from Broder & Sachse Real Estate Services Inc., which purchased the Orchestra Place Building from the DSO in 2017; and the family of late Redico President and CEO Robert Sosnick, for whom the courtyard is named.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Chris Harrington

Each time the DSO presents a performance in Sosnick Courtyard, it has to build a stage, bring in lighting and a film projector and rent chairs and tables, said Chris Harrington, managing director and curator of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra @ The Max and Paradise Jazz Series.

"We're looking for a permanent stage where we'd be able to present performances throughout the summer and possibly throughout the year, if the right opportunity presents itself," Harrington said.

Activating the courtyard is an opportunity for the DSO "to continue to experiment, to make sure we present programming not only in line with what we're already doing but (also aimed at) attracting new audiences," he said.

While those efforts are underway, the DSO plans to host a series of six to 10 events at Sosnick Courtyard in July and August.

The DSO will announce details later this month, but attendees can expect to see film screenings, opera, salsa, swing dance parties, yoga, local and national artists, interactive music sculptures and the DSO's own musicians in the courtyard this summer, Harrington said.

The Sosnick Courtyard series will be funded through a five-year, $800,000 grant from the Knight Foundation and a $150,000 grant from the League of American Orchestras, which is supporting programs both in the courtyard and in the DSO's Peter D. and Julie F. Cummings Cube.

The series kicks off July 10 with a "Summer Street Party" hosted by the DSO and WDET 101.9 FM. It will feature three Detroit artists and food trucks, kicking off the Concert of Colors and celebrating WDET's 70th anniversary and Orchestra Hall's centennial year.

The Sosnick Courtyard is an underutilized space attached to a key anchor cultural institution, said Lavea Brachman, vice president of programs for the Wilson foundation, in an emailed statement.

"Fifteen years have passed since the last major renovations on the DSO campus, and much has changed in Midtown over that timeframe," she said.

Wilson's $150,000 grant to support a master plan to activate the Sosnick Courtyard into a community gathering space "will provide the DSO the funding needed to generate a community vision for a unique, highly accessible public space with increased cultural programming opportunities," Brachman said.